Tuesday, July 30, 2013

I really like the early seasons of Big Bang Theory, though I haven't really been watching since about the middle of season 3. I wanted to get the Philosopher watching the early ones and never got back to catching up. Someday, when I have copious spare time and nothing but knitting and tv shows to catch up on....

One clip I watched over and over was Sheldon reciting "Rock, Paper, Scissors, Lizard, Spock." I watched it enough times that I can, if asked, do the entire routine almost at speed.

It's a new sock-sized project bag!! If you look closely, it has the rules layout in very light script under the diagram.

And inside it has marvelous equations. They're a mix of math, physics, chemistry...

I've even stuffed it's first project inside: the Brunette's mitts. Remember those? I really figured those would be long gone out the door by now and perhaps if the Blonde hadn't gotten pregnant...but I digress, I've had the yarn since late last fall, I need to get them done and out to him before this winter arrives.

Friday, July 26, 2013

I loved the music from Disney's Princess and the Frog. It was speaking that I walked into seeing Tangled with my friend Jenny singing songs from it and, after sitting through the latter movie and it's songs, we still walked out singing P&tF.

The end is in sight for the knitting of the squares. I'm on the third color of square 12! Then I just have to figure out seaming, do all the seaming, put on a border, and weave in all the ends. That should only take 15 minutes on the train, right?

It's an impressive pile of squares:

I'm looking forward to getting everything put together and seeing just how eye-searing it will be. If you hear someone muttering "bright colors are good for babies..." that'll be me.

I had stalled a bit again on Square 11 but I had an extra large amount of time on the train earlier this week and, in anticipation of that, brought along the yarn. I only have three more sides to go (40, 40, and 50 stitches; 20 rows each, respectively). If I only have one skein of yarn though, that makes it more functional for commute knitting. The possibilities are there....

I have lots of "once I finish the afghan plans" but those need to wait until said afghan is indeed complete.

Thursday, July 25, 2013

One of the several reasons I don't knit socks for people I don't know extremely well is that I would prefer the socks to fit. As such, the Philosopher and AudioGirl know that when I'm working on a pair for them, at some point they'll hear that phrase while I'm trying to verify foot length. Even though I know approximately how long their feet are, and I probably should do some measuring and such--seeing them and requiring a foot is easier for now. The Incredibly-Patient-Mother has size 8 feet, handy for when I need to get an extra foot for OAmy, who has the temerity to live in another country and not be available for sock sizing quite as frequently as one could hope.

Anywho, verifying fit means also that I've found out that where I was starting the toe for AudioGirl's socks is too long, so I'm going to have to rip back the toes on the last pair I finished for her--the ones I made out at Wood's Hole. Fortunately, I've not woven in ends yet so it shouldn't be too bad. I also have to rip back the first toe of the Punk Rock socks and make it a bit shorter. I am winding down the toe at a more reasonable length of sock 2 of the Punk Rock Socks. A few more rounds and they'll be off the needles.

This yarn is so very cushy, but with 10% cashmere one does rather expect that. AudioGirl, during a trying on session, verified that "I will love them with my feet" so I imagine they'll go into heavy rotation this winter.

This next picture is the most color true I think I've gotten of this yarn so far. The sock is propped up on a tripod.

I've also been plowing through the Philosopher's sock during this week's commute. I swear the gusset took forever, but seeing that it's only been a week, I've done other knitting, and I'm ready to stuff his foot into it again to see if I can start the toe now, I'm actually not doing too poorly.

As you can see, I did not rip back. The Philosopher likes the pools and spirals and spools so he'll get these lovely, slightly crazy socks and wear them in good health.

There's a very big difference between the leg and foot spirals. Part of that, of course, was the flap and gusset decreases but now that I'm doing half of the foot in stockinette the coils have stretched out.

We've broken the heat wave, it was almost strangely cool on Wednesday and we're having really high waves on Lake Michigan. It feels strangely unlike July but the break in the need for air conditioning and swimming through humidity has been welcomed by everyone.

I realized that once I get these two pair done I only have one more skein of sock wool wound up and ready to go. That could lead to all sorts of chaos, so a weekend goal is to yarn for at least 5 more pair of socks wound up and ready to go. Also to wash a couple of my project bags--getting hauled everywhere means they get some serious wear, tear, and rather grubby.

Thursday, July 18, 2013

*Hello visitors from the Yarn Harlot! Sock Show is usually on Thursday, Monday was a late catch up.*

I've been plugging away at this sock this week, but I'm not sure whether or not it's going to survive. Ultimately, it's not up to me, it's up to the Philosopher, on whose feet these will be residing. The reason for the possible demise?

It's pooling. A lot. Strangely.

It's kind of striping, but not. It's sort of spiraling, but not. The colors are lovely, but odd with the pooling. A rich dark blue and purple, the lighter blue and pops of yellow.

Unfortunately, I haven't had a chance really to see the Philosopher and get his opinion, we're doing the "I'll see you while one of us is mostly unconscious" approach to communicating this week. I leave before he's up almost all the time but this week he's been getting home after I have flopped onto the bed and fallen asleep as that's where our air at home is. So he hasn't seen the socks as yet.

This is my second time using the Adorn base from Three Irish Girls and again, it's very nice. My first pair was the Gray Lady socks I made for the Incredibly Patient Mother last year. I'm continuing, as usual, to do a 1x1 plain vanilla ribbed sock. 1x1 definitely goes a little more slowly than 2x2 but it gives a much nicer squish to the sock I think and my hands are used to it now. Also, it gives a little more fit to the leg of the sock, which is good when there isn't elastic/spandex/etc.

The weather this week has not been conducive to knitting. A few minutes wait for the train means sticky sweaty hands in these 90+ degree temperatures and ridiculous humidity. Inside the air conditioning, of course, it's not so bad. The vacillation between shivering with goosebumps to heavily perspiring and back again is hard on the body and makes it difficult to concentrate. The heat is supposed to break on Saturday a little and by Sunday we might have highs in the 70s.

Oh, for those curious, I haven't finished the second sock for AudioGirl. It's still languishing waiting for me not to be over-committed and overheated at Chez Hedgehog. I don't know that the commitments are going anywhere but the heat might and I will get it done.

Monday, July 15, 2013

Last week I knit half a sock in one day as coping technique. While the rest of the week wasn't quite so productive, knitting to take the edge off was in full play.

If I'm still aiming for 12 pair of socks a year, I'm nearly done with my August pair and cast on September already. On July 15. I need to figure out some other things that I can bring on the commute with me as soon as I wrap up the Blonde's baby afghan. Square 10 was bound off on Sunday, so in theory I could finish that this week.

Knitting time is still kind of limited. Work is taking up far more than it's fair share of the week, I'm a little more than halfway through a Coursera course that is supposed to be teaching me good programming habits (the Philosopher keeps having to find knitting analogies), and there are all these other people and research projects impinging on my time.

And it's mid-July and sultry outside. We know winter is coming though.

The Philoseven socks got finished up on July 5. Not bad for the "July" socks.

I'm still impressed with the vibrancy of the greens captured in these socks. My photos are okay but in person, imagine about twice the depth of color. Really must get my light box set up.

The yarn is 100% wool. I'm not sure what breed that means but it's coarser than a merino. It felt closer to a BFL. Mostly I've enjoyed Fleur de Fiber's color sense.

I used size 1 needles and these took just over a month.

Then it was on to AudioGirl's Punk Rock Socks. I don't think you've seen these yet.

The yarn is Bugga!, which is sportweight and knitting up quickly on 1.5 needles (2.5 mm). I'm a little further than these photos show--the socks went with to the jazz gig last night and so I'm about ready to start the toe of the second sock. I'm hoping to finish this week.

And finally, the morning commute called for something that was already wound and wasn't in need of trying on to verify toe length, so here's the yarn for Philosoeight:

Tuesday, July 2, 2013

If you don't follow my other blog and/or you're not a librarian, I'm just coming off my biggest conference for 2013: the American Library Association Annual Conference, for which I was one of the division program planning committee chairs. This was my culminating conference with the committee, ending four years of work, mostly behind the scenes. And I won't say it isn't a bit of a relief to hand it on to the next chair. Next year I might actually get to attend the conference rather than feeling spread quite so thin going to meetings. We'll see how that shakes down though...

On the knitting front, there is minimal news to report. This despite having a conference. The conference was here in Chicago, which means I didn't have my usual plane travel time and I wasn't filling my evenings with knitting and socializing because I was coming home and collapsing into bed. The Philosopher got to see me unconscious every night be I can't say we spent any substantive time together while I was attending.

So while I still had the commute, only one day of which was driving, I didn't do much knitting. There was just so many other things going on: moderating a panel, holding a meeting, tackling plans for a new project... and one day I left my knitting sitting on the livingroom table at home, realizing it only about 30 minutes into the train ride south. And no one had any spare emergency knitting with them. Next year I really hope we get some yarn vendors in the exhibits.

I will try to round up sock pictures for tomorrow. Today, my recovery day/wind down day, has mostly been about sleeping but I have been working on an afghan square for the Blonde. I am almost done with my 8th square and I have confirmed that I will not be able to get 16 squares and have enough yarn to seam and edge the blanket. As I'd like to do an i-cord edging and have a plan that involves a 3 color 3 needle bindoff to do the seaming (we'll see), I'll need a fair amount of yarn for that. But as cradles, beds, and people tend to be longer than they are wide, a blanket that is also rectangular will do.